After more than 10 years of debate and speculation, the high school softball pitching distance will move from 40 to 43 feet by 2011.

Or will it?

The National Federation of State High School Associations, of which the OHSAA is a member, says it will.

The OHSAA and the state coaches association say maybe not in Ohio.

The federation voted in Indianapolis last month to adopt the 43-foot rule for varsity games only. The distance conforms to standards set by the NCAA, various softball sanctioning organizations and National Pro Fastpitch, among others.

Both the federation and the National Fastpitch Coaches Association have posted a news release dated Tuesday on their Web sites that reads, in part: “Although the new pitching distance is mandatory beginning with the 2010-11 school year, NFHS-member . . . associations may adopt the 43-feet distance in 2009-10, if desired.”

The OHSAA and the Ohio High School Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association don’t desire.

Quite to the contrary. Ohio might not adopt it at all, despite the word “mandatory,” said Bill Matthews, the Amherst softball coach and a member of the Ohio coaches association rules committee. He said the organization and OHSAA are opposed to it, the coaches strongly so.

Indeed, Roxanne Price, an OHSAA assistant commissioner and softball liaison, said in a letter to the national federation: “The Ohio High School Athletic Association would be opposed to such a change as it does not reflect the desire of our member school fast pitch softball coaches.

“I was told by the president (of) the OHSFSCA that the coaches in Ohio voted overwhelmingly to keep the pitching mound at its current distance of 40 feet. Ohio has over 750 schools that participate in girls’ high school softball.”

Matthews said the coaches association poll showed that about 70 percent of its members were opposed to moving the rubber back three feet.

Among area coaches, Amherst’s Matthews, Ken Fenik of Elyria, Jim Piazza of Keystone and Westlake’s Tom Shiban said they were mostly opposed to the change. Shiban is the state coaches association’s Northeast District president.

A thought they expressed was that strong pitchers will continue to be strong, while less-skilled pitchers will suffer. They also said more pressure will be put on position players and the new rule might completely change the approach taken by teams that depend on strong pitching and defense to be successful.

Some coaches also said it will put small schools at a disadvantage because they will need very good pitchers and more and better defensive players, while having smaller pools of players from which to choose.

Former Keystone coach Dave Leffew, who is now the pitching coach at Ashland University, said he has two views.

“As a college coach, I like it because it will have high school kids pitching at the college distance,” he said. “But as a high school coach, I’d have mixed emotions because 3 feet can make a big difference in speed and the movement a pitcher gets on the ball.”

The change was approved by the NFSHA after two state associations experimented with 43 feet – Florida for four years and Oregon for one. The national federation said coaches surveyed in the two states strongly supported the change.

The discussion about extending the distance has continued for at least a decade. A national federation official was quoted as saying the change was approved to create a better balance between offense and defense. The Florida and Oregon experiments indicated more balls were put into play when the pitchers threw from 43 feet, he said.

Contact Bob Daniels at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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